Great Christmas!

[masraum]

We've had a great Christmas. The kids came up and brought our first (and only) grandkid. He's almost 20 months old and as cute as a box of puppies and kittens. We had a wonderful dinner (Christmas goose, stuffing, sides). We had a nice relaxed visit with the kids before with presents and chatting and the grandson wandering around and being cute. All in all, it was a great visit. The kids have headed home with the grandson. Our son is a manager of a restaurant. Someone broke into the restaurant (and was arrested) so the son has had to run down to the restaurant to talk to the police, but he should be back in a bit and will be spending the night with us.

For his birthday, he was given a bottle of Stagg Jr Bourbon (131.9°). It's apparently good stuff. I'm not a big drinker, especially not hard liquor. He's had some issues with knowing his limits when he was younger but is not really much of a drinker these days either, so he brought this bottle. We're going to use it to make eggnog later (from scratch, so freakin' tasty). He told the person that gave it to him and they had an aneurysm. My son-in-law is a bit of a drinker, lots of bourban and hard liquor. Our curiosity was piqued so we all tried it. I assume bourbon is like Scotch in that you should drink it with a bit of water, so that's how I tried it with a little water. I have to say that it smelled REALLY tasty. I was surprised, the flavor, once you got past the initial burn (132 proof, don't forget), was very nice. It seemed to have a fruity scent and after-taste. To me it seemed to have the flavor of banana which seemed really bizarre, but again, was very nice. It was VERY smooth, especially considering how strong it was.

The missus got one of the new series 3 iWatches with GPS and Cell which was a total surprise to her. She's also got some more stuff coming in the mail that will also be a complete surprise for her. The kids get money put into Roth IRAs in their names every year and then a few small gifts. I got a new knife for the kitchen (Shun Santoku), a new bluetooth headset (Plantronics Voyager 8200, similar to Bose QuietComfort 35s) that I'll use at home and at work (I can spend hours on conference calls at times). I'm actually very excited about the headset for both quality of sound, noise cancellation and battery life. Also, this headset will remember up to 8 devices, so it'll connect to everything that I have that has bluetooth and I won't have to relearn devices if I connect to more than 2.

But the pièce de résistance (at least as far as the board is concerned) is that I got a Thrunite TC12 v2 flashlight AND a zebralight AA headlight. They both seem like quality gear. I'm very excited about both. I just need to read the manuals to make sure that I can access all of the various light levels.

I hope everyone has had a wonderful Christmas!

[Bill Douglas]

Heavens forbid. But try the bourbon with coca cola.